


I love you without knowing how

by 4thofFive



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: M/M, Romance, Worry, mcdanno
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-13
Updated: 2015-10-13
Packaged: 2018-04-26 06:07:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4993174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/4thofFive/pseuds/4thofFive
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grace and Danno are about to move in with Uncle Steve but Grace can't help worrying.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I love you without knowing how

**Author's Note:**

  * For [missmeagan666](https://archiveofourown.org/users/missmeagan666/gifts).



> This idea was given to me by MissMeagan666 last year but I never found the gumption to write it until now. I hope you like it MissM.
> 
> Title from the poem "I love you without knowing how" by Pablo Neruda:
> 
> “I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.”  
> ― Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets

Grace removed the last of her shirts from her bottom dresser drawer and piled them into the over filled suitcase on the bed before sitting down beside it with a sigh. She looked around her room with its now bare walls. The place seemed so empty suddenly. She and Danno had only lived in this house for a couple of years but she’d come to love it. In some ways it was their first home together and it would always have a special place in her heart. 

The young woman looked up and smiled when Kono bustled into the room obviously on a mission.

“Hey sweetie, you got everything packed?”

Grace nodded.

“Yes Auntie, but I’m not sure if I can get my suitcase closed.”

Kono grinned and wriggled her fingers like she was about to perform a magic trick.

“No problem. I haven’t met a suitcase yet that can beat me.”

Working together, with Grace sitting on top of the suitcase and Kono coaxing the zipper, the two women got the case to close. Kono pulled it by the handle off the bed and dropped it on the floor with a grunt.

“What have you got in here? Gold bricks?”

Grace snickered.

“Just books and clothes.”

“I’m just glad that this is a one storey house.”

“Uncle Steve’s isn’t,” Grace reminded her adopted aunt.

“Yeah well, Uncle Steve and your dad can hump this upstairs at his house. They love any chance to show off their muscles, especially to each other.”

Grace gave her aunt a small smile then looked around one more time at her bedroom. She felt Kono slide an arm around her shoulders.

“It’s going to be hard to leave this place, huh?”

Grace nodded then looked up at her aunt worriedly.

“Auntie Kono, do you…?” Grace looked away and began gnawing on her bottom lip. Maybe she shouldn’t say anything.

Kono gave her a gentle shake.

“Hey, what’s up? You know you can tell me anything right? We’re friends aren’t we?”

Grace swallowed and nodded slowly.

“Well then?”

Grace took in a deep breath and blew it out.

“Do you think…are Danno and Steve…is it going to be ok?” Grace huffed in frustration. She wasn’t exactly sure what she was trying to ask and she’d just made herself sound like an idiot trying to put her thoughts into words.

Kono moved around Grace’s suitcase and sat down on the bed. She patted the place beside her and Grace came over and flopped down, her face red with embarrassment. Kono saw her discomfort and took the young woman’s chin in her hand and tugged it gently until Grace was looking up at her.

“Hey, are you worried about Danno and Uncle Steve moving in together?”

Grace shrugged ineffectually and dropped her eyes to the floor. 

“Grace,” Kono continued. “Danno and Steve love each other very much and they love you and Charlie very much. They want everyone to be together as a family, you get that right?”

“Yeah,” Grace replied softly, still unable to meet her Aunt’s eyes. Kono let go of the young woman’s face and instead put her hand on her shoulder.

“Are you worried that it won’t work out? That they’ll break up and everyone will be hurt?”

Grace let out a shaky breath. That was sort of the problem but not really. Not the major problem. But she didn’t know exactly how to express what she was feeling.

“I guess so.”

Kono gave Grace’s shoulder a gentle squeeze.

“Look sweetie, I can’t promise you everything will be sunshine and roses, but your dad and Steve love each other and they would never move in together, or bring you and your brother into a situation if they weren’t convinced they could make a go of it, ok?”

Grace looked up at her aunt and gave her the brightest smile she could muster.

“OK.”

Kono nodded confidently then stood up and grabbed the handle of Grace’s suitcase. 

“I’m going to take this out to Uncle Steve’s truck. You come out when you’re ready alright?”

Grace smiled again and nodded. As her Aunt pulled the heavy case of her room, Grace let her shoulders drop and she slumped on the bare mattress. What was the problem anyway? Grace loved her Uncle Steve and so did Charlie. The SEAL was funny and kind and brave. He obviously loved being around her and her brother and was always so willing to play goofy games with them or help with homework or just veg on the couch and watch movies. 

Grace stood up and walked around the bed to take one last look at the back garden that she and Danno had planted. Neither she nor her father were blessed with green thumbs, but everything grew so lush in Hawaii that planting gardens was almost idiot proof.

She put her elbows on the windowsill and stared at the little flower garden she’d insisted was hers alone. 

Grace may have been a little kid when her parents divorced but she could see clearly what that had done to her Danno. He always tried to be happy and upbeat whenever she was with him but she knew, even if she didn’t totally understand, that he was sad and he missed having a family all his own.

Now he and Steve were building that family together and Grace could see how happy and in love Danno was but…well she couldn’t always see that in Steve. She knew he must love Danno, why would he ask him to move into his house if he wasn’t? But Steve was always so reserved in his affection for Danno, he touched him lightly sometimes but she’d never seen them kiss, hold hands, or even hear Uncle Steve tell Danno he loved him.

That’s what scared Grace, the idea that Uncle Steve didn’t love Danno as much as Danno loved him. It had only been eight months since Catherine walked out of Steve’s life, maybe he didn’t ask Danno to move in because he loved him but because he was lonely.

“Hey, Monkey,” Danno’s voice interrupted her musings and she turned to see him standing in her bedroom doorway. “You ok? I know this can’t be easy for you. I know how much you love this place. I do too.”

Grace shrugged and gave her dad what she hoped looked like an optimistic smile.

“I will miss it, but I like Uncle Steve’s house too.”

Danny walked over to his daughter and pulled her so her back was against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her torso and held her close.

“Change is always hard. There’s always the unknown. You have a lot of fun with Uncle Steve but you’ve never lived with him day-to-day for an extended period of time. But he loves you Gracie, you know that right?”

Grace nodded and swallowed thickly against the tears threatening to well up in her eyes. She grasped her father’s forearms tightly.

“Uncle Steve is a good man and I know he’s going to be a good step-parent for you and Charlie. We just have to help him and teach him what it’s like to be a dad. We can help him with that can’t we?”

Grace let out a soft breath and nodded against her father’s chest.

“Yeah,” she replied softly.

Danny gave his daughter a squeeze before letting her go. He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her away from the window to face him.

“Baby, if you’re worried about anything, if something’s bothering you, you can talk to me. You and your brother are always number one for me, don’t forget that.”

Grace smiled up at her father.

“I know, Danno. I’m not worried I’m just kind of nervous I guess. It’s going to be ok.”

Danny grinned down at his baby girl and took her hand in his and began pulling her gently out of her bedroom.

“Good. I think so too. I think we’re all going to be very happy. Let’s go find Uncle Steve and get this show on the road.”

The two walked down the hallway and into the living room and through the front door. Steve was standing in the bed of his pickup truck barking orders at Kono, Chin and Lou as to the proper placement of each object. He paused for a moment and looked up at Grace giving her a happy grin.

“Ready to go, Gracie?”

Grace couldn’t help but smile back. Seeing Uncle Steve smile was just about everyone’s favourite thing.

“Ready.”

**********

Grace tossed and turned for a while trying to get comfortable in her bed. She was sleeping on the same bed she’d had for a couple of years but in a totally new room, and it was making it hard for her to sleep.

She rolled onto her side and looked at her alarm clock. It was just after 11 p.m. and she should have been asleep an hour ago. She made a disgusted sound in her throat and sat up. She hadn’t heard Danno and Uncle Steve go to bed but they must have been tired after a day of moving and unpacking. 

Grace dropped her feet to the floor and shoved them into her slippahs. Maybe a hot milk would help her sleep. She’d stayed at Uncle Steve’s house enough to know exactly where everything was so she could make it without waking her dad and Steve.

Grace crept quietly out of her room and padded down the stairs to the kitchen. It was only dimly lit by the stove light but that was enough for her to dig a pot out of the cupboard and the milk out of the fridge. She poured a cup or so of milk into the pot and turned it on low like her Danno had taught her. As she put the milk back in the fridge she froze for a moment. She could hear soft music playing from somewhere. Had someone left a radio on? Grace glanced around the kitchen and into the living room to track the source of the sound. Seeing the reflection of light coming through the window, Grace stepped over to move the curtains aside and let out a small gasp. The tiki torches on the beach had been lit and were softly flickering in the light Hawaiian breeze. The music, Grace recognized the song as Unchained Melody, one of Danno’s favourites, was playing from an old style boom box sitting on a table near the sand. Grace felt her breath stutter in her chest as she watched two figures, wrapped in each other’s arms, swaying softly on the shoreline. Uncle Steve had his arms wrapped tightly around Danno’s shoulders, his face buried in Danno’s hair. Even with the minimal amount of light available, Grace could see Danno’s face pressed against Steve’s chest, a small smile of peace and contentment on his lips – a look she hadn’t remembered ever seeing before. As Grace watched, Danno lifted his head and Steve bent down to give her dad a long, passionate kiss.

Grace blinked back tears as she stepped away from the window, not wanting to intrude on their privacy. The way they looked at each other, the way they held tight to each other, Grace knew she was seeing love: true, lasting love. She smiled happily and went back to the kitchen to turn off the heat under the pot of milk. She poured the lukewarm mixture into her mug and climbed back up the stairs to her new room. She didn’t need the milk now. She knew she would sleep like a baby knowing her Danno was going to be loved and cared for the rest of his life.

The end.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [I Love You Without Knowing How [Podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6718516) by [librarychick_94](https://archiveofourown.org/users/librarychick_94/pseuds/librarychick_94)




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